Literally Wrong 2

[hjgoldstein]

I don't know why people who should know better keep doing this.
In this article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20176376

the researcher from the Mackintosh School of Architecture (only in Glasgow) says about people drying their laundry in their houses:

Some were literally decorating the house with it...

NO THEY WEREN'T!
The fact that this is a quote from (I assume) an academic source makes it even more unacceptable.
I am literally fuming!

Aspiring to mediocrity since 1957

 

[ponoodle]

Thanks Santa. Now, every time I hear someone use the word "literally", I can't help but to mentally substitute my favorite profanity. It is pretty literally amusing, but I fear that some people may think I'm losing my literally mind when I start laughing for no apparent reason.

 

[BadBigBen]

@Sam,
>> There's an urban legend about Eskimos having hundreds of words to describe snow.
Actually, I do not believe they even have a word for snow... I think they just circumscribe the phenomenon, e.g. the white stuff that falls from the sky that is cold on nose...

@Andre,
>> two people (guys) were talking using ONLY swear words, profanities, in their conversation, no other words were spoken.
you could've at least said "hello" to my friend and me...

>> For some reason used A LOT by high school girls,
actually, that is called Valleyspeak, which I even remember from middle-school (grades 6 through 8 where I grew up) way back in the late 70's - early 80's... and it's like totally gnarly, just totally like tubular, ya know... (NOT)

@Santa,

well, that was quite amusing, and you do have a point there...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[hjgoldstein]

Santa's point is well made. However, the syntax may invalidate the substitution theory.

For example, Gholden's "he had to cut back inside on to his left, because he literally hasn't got a right foot" doesn't quite work for me and in reverse, ponoodle's "...I'm losing my literally mind..." also slightly misses the mark.

Nevertheless, a highly amusing exercise.

Aspiring to mediocrity since 1957

 

[SamBones]

I disagree to a point that the "like" phenomena is ValleySpeak. It may have evolved from that, maybe having it's roots there, but it is different. I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, which is where ValSpeak originated. The Frank Zappa song "Valley Girl" mentions a lot of places that I hung out at. I remember hearing it all over, long before the song and some movies made it a phenomena.

To me the "like" seems to be more akin to someone saying "uh" when they speak. It's a pause word while they think ahead on what they're saying. Something to fill the dead air. Well, that's not completely true, but I've noticed that if you were to take the full sentence that they said, and just deleted all of the "like"s, they are mostly complete thoughts and grammatically correct. Not always, but many times it is.

ValSpeak on the other hand seems to me to be a complete bastardization of the language. It is it's own dialect.

While listening to the "like girls", I had the thought that if my ears had a "like" filter that I could switch on, their conversation would actually be an intelligent and cogent discussion of school, their classes and teachers, and events in their friend's lives. But WITH the "like"s, they sounded like complete idiots.

Also, the bell idea is a great one and does work. I used to be in Toastmasters to learn how to better speak in front of people. One of the tools used is that someone will literally sit there listening to your speech with a bell in hand. Any time you say "uh", or "um", or any other placeholder noise or word, they ring the bell. The number of ringings is tallied and counts against your score for the speech. It's an extremely effective tool and teaches you very quickly that a small pause makes you sound much more intelligent than continually tossing in "uh", "um", "duh", or other noises.

 

[Andrzejek]

Did you drool and slobber a lot with every sound of the bell?

I have a co-worker who ends almost every sentence with “so…”

Have fun.

---- Andy

 

[ANFPS26]

I knew someone who ended most sentences with "right there", and with a thick southern accent. His friends sometimes would place bets on how many times he would say "right there" in a given time frame.

Jim

 

[SamBones]

Did you drool and slobber a lot with every sound of the bell?

It was hard to tell since I drool and slobber a lot anyway!

 

[BadBigBen]

Sam,

I know what you are saying, I still think that "like", though, doesn't totally replace the "uh" (or thought pause), but rather to emphasize the point of the conversation.

e.g. "I really like hate that". Wouldn't make any sense, or wouldn't sound right, with either a thought pause or with "uh" in it... "like" stresses the word "hate" in that sentence...
the other example you wrote, "from like California", also does not meet the "uh" (or thought pause) symptom, rather it too stresses the following word "California"...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[2ffat]

Maybe we need to start a new thread on "Valley-Speak/Surfer-Dude-Speak." My pet "Valley-Speak/Surfer-Dude-Speak" peeve is totally.

We totally had sex.

I totally seen it used in like print lately, too.



James P. Cottingham
I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!

 

[BadBigBen]

I like totally agree, James."

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[SamBones]

We totally had sex.

Spoiler

Would that be "no holes barred" sex?

 

[acl03]

David Cross has a comedy routine on this subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ly1UTgiBXM

Warning: There are a few swear words in it.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hard work often pays off over time, but procrastination pays off right now!

 

[philhege]

Late to this party, but another filler phrase I've heard in these hyar parts is "...and everything else," as in

So we were talking about going to the game and everything else,....

Really? Everything? It must have been a long conversation.

-----------
With business clients like mine, you'd be better off herding cats.

 

[SantaMufasa]

"...and everything else,"

...which I dislike nearly as much as the ubiquitous, "...and stuff"...

I'm going over to my friend's house and we're gonna watch TV and stuff and then get some pizza and stuff and then go play basketball and stuff.

I believe that the "...and stuff..." is what usually ends up justifying a call to 911/police.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

[r3db3ard]

thread revival!!!

Ok, after reading this thread and not seeing it I had to add:

When someone makes a phrasing error like(such as) 'irregardless,' for some reason, it hits my ear like(with similarity to) a brick to the face.
But the worst of them all imo is 'same difference.'

I most often hear this phrase when person A suggests something trivial like visiting McDontald's and person B has a slightly differing suggestion 'like' Burger Queen. During the conversation that arises about to determine which suggestion is best someone will innevitably throw out 'same difference.'

For those not aware, the phrase 'same difference' requires at a minimum, 3 objects being compared to one another.

Literal Ex:
1 is less than 4 by 3, 2 is less than 5 by 3, therefor the differences between 1&4 and 5&3 are the same... 3. same differences.

*Also imo, it should always be in plural form if used correctly, ie. "same differences

 

[Annihilannic]

Yeah, that one used to really irritate me, but it's in such common usage here (Oz) that I hear myself saying it sometimes!

I think it's a confusion between "no difference" and "same thing"... which to my mind turns it into a contradiction.

Even more mind-boggling is the common prefix to responses, for example when sports players are interviewed on TV, "Yeah nah, ...".

Annihilannic
[small]tgmlify - code syntax highlighting for your tek-tips posts[/small]

 

[SamBones]

I always thought it was just to be funny. "Same" meaning equal, "Difference" meaning not equal. Saying it to be self contradictory just to be cute.

 

[hjgoldstein]

I have always thought it was a sort of sarcastic response. A bit like the "Whatever" the young 'uns use now.

Aspiring to mediocrity since 1957

 

[BadBigBen]

3 objects being compared to one another.

no it does not...

therefor the differences between 1&4 and 5&3 are the same

this is inheritable wrong, what it states is that there are actually only TWO objects being compared and that there is more than ONE difference between the two...
to clarify: 1&4 is one object and 5&3 is the other... the difference of 3 is singular, in this case...

thus the phrase, "same difference" is correct, and not the plural...




Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[2ffat]

. . . the differences between 1&4 and 5&3 are the same . . .

I'm sorry. I'm not up to date with the new math but isn't 1 - 4 = -3 (absolute value = 3) and 5 - 3 = 2? How are they the "same difference?"


James P. Cottingham
I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!